Home Theater

It’s that time of the year again! Time to snuggle up in front of the fire with some cocoa (wine, booze, etc.) and argue with your extended family about the merits of eggnog. Once you’ve split into your competing factions, one cradling a cup of the custardy goodness, and the other scratching their head as to why anyone would enjoy such a sickly-sweet concoction, you might find yourself at a loss for what to do next. We have the answer: Watch Christmas movies, of course.Unfortunately, as you may have noticed, it’s getting harder and harder to find your favorite movies streaming — without having to pay for a costly rental, anyway. Heck, Fortune even wrote a story about the problem. But never fear, there are still some great movies with holiday cheer available through your favorite streaming sites, and we’ve rounded them all up for you. These are the best Christmas movies you can stream for free with a subscription (eggnog optional).‘The Muppet … [Read more...] about The best Christmas movies currently available for streaming

Every year, Digital Trends editors hand pick the most exciting products we’ve had the privilege of handling this year. Make sure to check out award winners in categories from cars to computers, plus the overall best product of 2017! Read on for the home theater products that floored us this year. LG C7P OLED TVFor three years in a row, LG’s OLED TVs have dominated their peers, easily plucking our top nomination in this category. That’s what happens when you make the best TV we’ve ever tested. This year our choice was a bit more difficult; as LG’s OLED line expanded to include eye-popping wonders like the W7 “Wallpaper” OLED, Sony burst onto the scene with the A1E OLED, LG’s first real competition in the space.In the end, LG’s C7P OLED still won out for offering the best combination of picture quality, design elements, and relatively approachable price. This TV does everything, does it all better than every other TV on the … [Read more...] about Best home theater product of 2017

In the first two videos of this four-part Connect my Crib series, we gutted a house of its aging technology in preparation to create a state-of-the-art smart home and began to breath new life into our home theater. In this third video, we see some of the progress that’s been made on retrofitting the house with a new wired and wireless network — the backbone of the smart home, if you will — and witness the installation of the smart home’s brain, a Control4 system.One of the challenges with today’s modern entertainment electronics and Internet of Things (IOT) devices is figuring out how to make them all work together in a simple and understandable way. Most folks don’t want to walk into their living room and have to wrangle four remotes for five minutes just to watch a movie. Beyond providing the amplification for our audio systems and the switching for our video systems, Control4 provides … well, control over the myriad black boxes, light … [Read more...] about To connect our home, we gave it wires and Wi-Fi. To bring it to life, we gave it Control4

While virtually all TVs ship with smart features these days, they may not be the features you want, as many streaming services are only available via external hardware. The best solution: Buy a worthy streaming media player. The problem is, a veritable smorgasbord of available choices makes this a more complicated and daunting task than ever before.With TVs offering 4K resolution and High Dynamic Range (HDR), you want to make sure you buy a streamer that is compatible, but that’s only the start. You also want to make sure that the streaming services you care about (and the content you want to watch) can be easily found, without having to scour the web for hours. This article serves up the cream of the crop — the best streaming devices out there — so you can get the absolute most from your streaming experience. Our pick Roku UltraWhy should you buy this: It’s the best streamer on the market, and it’s affordable to boot. … [Read more...] about From the Roku Ultra to Amazon Fire TV, these are the best streaming devices

Remember the massive disappointment that was Fyre Festival? Sure, there were a lot of issues that needed fixing — namely, everything — but we’re pretty sure it could have been salvaged with a few Soundbokses. This massive Bluetooth speaker, designed by three enterprising Danes, is designed to fuel huge parties for hours on end, and based on our testing, we believe it can do just that.At $900, buying a Soundboks — or, more specifically, the Soundboks 2 — is no minor decision, but trust us: If you need tunes for any large gathering, be it a wedding reception, a company picnic, a blazing beach bonfire, or a backyard birthday bash, this just might be your best bet.Durable is an understatementThe Soundboks 2 itself is about three feet tall, two feet wide, and a foot deep, and weighs in at a relatively light 33 pounds. It’s a little unwieldy, though — given the somewhat awkward handles and the shape of the speaker, we don’t … [Read more...] about Soundboks 2 Bluetooth speaker review

In video two of our ongoing smart-home overhaul series with Control4, Digital Trends hones in on home theater. What was once a technological marvel just 15 years ago had grown outdated and accumulated a significant amount of dust. Not only did the home theater space and equipment closet need a metaphorical and literal freshening up, but the theater’s projector had to be moved, and a new control system had to be integrated.If you haven’t yet gotten caught up with the scope and scale of this smart home transformation, be sure to check out video 1 of this series.Given its reputation for exquisite, audiophile-approved audio gear, it might seem surprising that we ripped a 75-lb McIntosh A/V receiver and high-end CD player out of the system, but the CD player wouldn’t be needed, and the new Audio Control Concert AVR-9 A/V receiver would provide plenty of potent power along with all the latest surround sound processing needed for this project, as well as 4K video support.The … [Read more...] about Gutting this A/V rack was just the start of our home-theater overhaul

It can be tough to quell the vinyl bug once it bites. Maybe it was a terrific listening experience at a friend’s house, or perhaps you’ve been collecting records without a decent way to play them for years, but once you have the desire to listen to gorgeous analog audio, nothing else will do. The best vinyl setups enable you to enjoy those lush tones of yesteryear, and celebrate the rituals of audio’s early days.With so many speakers, amplifiers, and turntables available, it can be tough to know how to even start to build an good setup to enjoy your record collection. We’ve got you covered. Below, we outline three entirely different vinyl setups to consider, ranging from an affordable and rewarding option to an aspirational audiophile-grade system for those who want to experience analog audio like never before.Stanton T62 direct-drive turntable$160See itJBL Professional LSR305 speakers$129 eachSee itPro-Ject Phono Box E Phono preamplifier$60See it Total: $478If … [Read more...] about Listen up: These are the three best vinyl setups, from budget to bougie

Twenty years ago, new home builders saw an opportunity to add value to a property by installing in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, routing miles of speaker wires, and installing volume dials in every room. Before the days of Sonos and LCD TVs, it was a novelty to be able to listen to music everywhere, and getting a big screen meant a dedicated room with a projector. Today, if you’re buying a home under 30 years old, there’s a good chance the house will come with just such a system or room. It may seem pretty cool at first, but it won’t take long before you realize it’s disappointingly outdated — certainly nothing like the connected smart homes you read about online.Such was the case with our gorgeous new test bed for smart home technology and smart appliances out in the country. The new home had speakers in every room, an aging home theater, and two closets loaded with what was high-end gear in its day. Unfortunately, all of the infrastructure was horribly … [Read more...] about We took a dumb home and made it smart. Here’s where we started

So you’ve got that big new flat screen TV all picked out. You’ve got your 4K UHD, your HDR, your LED (or better yet, OLED) — all the requisite acronyms to ensure the fam is on cloud nine when you fire up the holiday classics. But if you’re still rocking that cobwebbed old hi-fi (or maybe no sound system at all), we’re here to tell you there’s one more thing to do this holiday season before you lug that TV home: Let yourself get upsold on sound.We know what you’re thinking: “The nerd in the blue polo is just gunning for commission. Why should I shell out more green for a sound system after I just paid a mint for a TV?” And 99 percent of the time you’d be right to be wary of the dreaded upsell. But, while not everyone is an audio freak like us, everybody benefits from great sound. Whether it’s the rolling thunder or rumbling explosions of action movies, the engulfing soundtrack of a gripping drama, or rich dialogue … [Read more...] about Embrace the upsell! Your new TV deserves one of these killer sound systems

the current record renaissance, not only are there a bevy of classics available from your local record store, but there are also an increasing number of new artists releasing their latest albums on vinyl, usually alongside a digital download code to give you the best of both worlds — class and convenience.If you’ve been squirreling away cash to either get in the vinyl game or maybe indulge in an upgrade, there are now a ton of options that cater to both your audiophile cravings and your aesthetic sensibilities. For your convenience, we’ve compiled a list of the best turntables avaialable under $500 that will bring music to your ears (literally and figuratively), and some style to your pad. Note: Some of these turntables include a built-in phono preamp , while others do not. A phono preamp is a device that boosts the signal from the turntable so that modern electronics can play it. While many older receivers have a phono input, some newer devices do not. Whether or … [Read more...] about The best turntables under $500